Schedule a Consultation | Contact us at 425.591.4949

Outlook Tips to Save You Time, Energy and Stress

Outlook Tips

If you’ve been with us for our series on taming email, we’ve touched on some great general advice and also tips and tricks specific to Gmail users.  If you are an Outlook user, today is your turn!   There are endless Outlook tips, features and tricks you may not know about that can make your email life even easier. Here are a few of our favorite.

10 essential Outlook tips to implement today:

 

1. Consider being less organized

We probably surprised you with that one, didn’t we? Imagine a Professional Organizer suggesting that you be less organized! Well, we’ve seen some pretty granular electronic filing systems within Outlook (or other email programs) and sometimes the time and effort setting up these very detailed systems and getting the email into just the right folder (and then remembering which of the many folders you saved something in for later retrieval) can take a lot of time. One of the advantages we have with electronic records, is the ease of Search. While if we forget which file folder in the physical filing cabinet holds the document we need, we need to look in the folders one by one, with electronic records, we can perform a simple Search and find what we need quickly. The more specific you can make your search, the faster it will be performed.

Teach yourself smart search tactics. Also, know that when you place your cursor in the Search box in Outlook, a new Search tab appears in the ribbon. Click on that tab and you will find a variety of ways to easily refine your search (between certain dates, from certain sender, with or without an attachment, subject, etc.). You can also define the scope of your search there (current folder, sub-folders, all Outlook items, etc.).

One helpful but little known Outlook tip is that you can change the subject line of an email you have received before filing it. This can make it easier to find later, as you’ll change it to something you would think of if you need it later. To do this, simply highlight the subject line, type in the subject word or line you’d think to search later, click on the “x” to close the email in the upper right hand corner and when asked if you want to save your changes, select “yes”. From there you can drag the email into the reference folder of your choosing and feel more confident that you can quickly find it at a later time.

If you can become skilled at search, you can just have a couple of key folders for reference, instead of a multitude, and find you save time both when you are “filing” and retrieving email.

 

2. Disable Desktop Alerts

Here’s an Outlook tip you may not want to hear. Turn off the alerts you receive when a new email comes in! These serve as more of a distraction than a help. When your attention is drawn away from what you are working on by a notification of a new email, it can take you up to 15 minutes to get back to the level of focus and productivity you were experiencing prior to the interruption. The cost of time lost far outweighs any benefit of these notifications. Rarely does it matter that we “see” an email right when it comes in.

To disable these alerts, go to Options – Mail – and uncheck the boxes in the “Message Arrival” section. You’ll be glad you did!

 

3. Share your Calendar 

Share your calendar with those who schedule you into meetings, need to frequently know of your availability, or with whom you’re trying to keep posted as to your activity. This can cut down on emails about your availability, back-and-forth messages related to scheduling, or questions about how you have scheduled your time.

To easily share your calendar, right click on Calendar and choose “share calendar”. Select with whom you want to share. Don’t worry; it doesn’t have to be a “tell all”. You can still mark certain appointments as private, where only you see the details, but others would see the time as booked.

 

4. Set up Rules 

Set up rules to have some email skip the inbox completely and be filed directly into a particular reference folder, into a “skim” folder (that you will review with regularity), or right into the trash. When you set up a rule, you will define both the conditions in which you want the rule to be applied (ie: from a certain center, contains a certain word in the subject line, etc.) the destination (where you want the email to go), any additional conditions and/or exceptions.

To create a rule on a type of email, when highlighted on the email, right click, select “rules”, create rule, set your conditions and destination, click on “advanced” to set additional conditions and/or exceptions and then save.

 

5. Save time by saving text

If you realize, as you’re typing a response to an email, or crafting one from scratch, that you would use the content again and again, you save it as a Quick Part.

In the compose email screen, simply highlight the block of text you want to use again another time, click on the Insert tab above, Quick Parts and then Save Selection to the Quick Parts Gallery and then name it (ie: job inquiry response). The next time you want to use that content, open a new email, go to the Insert tab, Quick Parts and then select the Quick Part you’d like to drop in. From there you can edit or customize it for the recipient to whom you are crafting the email.

Big time saver! This is one of our favorite and lesser known Outlook tips.

 

6. Save time by saving clicks

Outlook has a way of executing a series of actions to an email with just one click. You can essentially create a Macro by creating a Quick Step. You’ll find Quick Steps in the top ribbon when you’re in email.

Our favorite ways to “perform magic” with Quick Steps is to take an email and turn it into a task or calendar item (and then take the email out of the inbox) or to quickly file an email into a particular folder that you use frequently (with speed and accuracy that can not be matched by having to drag and drop the email into the folder).

To set up a Quick Step, from the Quick Step section on the ribbon, select “create new”, name your Quick Step, and then select the actions you’d like Outlook to perform in the macro by using the drop down arrows and “add action” until you are finished.

 

7. Delay Delivery

There are times when you want to compose an email right now, but schedule it to send later. Working a bit late in the evening or on a weekend and don’t want to engage in a back and forth exchange? Schedule the email to send first thing the next business morning. Remember that it is someone’s birthday next week and want to wish them well via email while you’re thinking about it, but have it received on their special day. You can do that!

To schedule delivery of an email you have composed, click on the Options tab, select “delay delivery”, select the date and time in the “do not deliver before” section and then click “close”. When you hit send on the email, it will actually go to your Outbox, where it will patiently wait until the date and time you indicated before it goes out into the Interwebs. Caution: your computer must be on and Outlook open on the date and time you have chosen. If either are off, the email will go out the next time you power up and open Outlook after the selected date and time.

 

8. Let people know what to expect

If you’re going to be out for a day or even a 1/2 day in back to back meetings, a training, or for personal matters, set your Out of Office message. In the automatically delivered message, indicate when you will return and be able to address their email, AND who they should contact should their matter need attention prior to that time.

Most people set their Out of Office message when they’ll be out on a week’s vacation, but it can be just as useful (and cut down on the “Did you get my email? It’s been two hours since I sent it and I haven’t yet gotten a reply” messages).

 

9. Adjust your John Hancock

Make sure your email signature contains not only your contact information, but anything else that you would include as you’re closing your email. Always sign off with “Sincerely, Debbie”? Make sure to include that in your email signature. You set it up once and then save keystrokes each time you send an email. (Although, unless your name is Debbie, that would be an odd addition to your email signature. You get the point.)

Promoting a class, book, event, or something else for your work or business? Include a plug for a period of time in your email signature. You’ll get marketing mojo each time you send an email. Use this judiciously. Also, if you work for a large corporation, your employer may have a specific policy about what you can and can not include in your email signature, as well as the format, font, logo, etc that suits the brand that you are required to use. Make sure you check with the powers that be if you want to make an adjustment in those cases.

 

10. Set up a Distribution List

Find that you’re emailing the same group of people with some regularity? Create a new Contact Group (go to Contacts (otherwise called “People”) – New Contact Group – Name it and then Add Members.

It can be a time saver to set up a Contact Group for a new project team you’ll be working with, your department, or any other subset of contacts that you’ll email as a group on numerous occasions. When you do go to send an email to a Contact Group, you only need to type the name of the group in the “To:” line, the group will pop up, and you’ll save time not having to type in all recipients email addresses in individually.

What now? What will you do with these Outlook tips?

Implement any of these 10 Outlook tips to keep your inbox running smoothly, be more effective with Outlook and save time!  If you’re wanting more tips and tricks, visit Outlook’s Support to solve just about any Outlook email efficiency issue you may have.  What are your favorite time-saving Outlook tips? Let us know if you could use an email intervention and we’ll be glad to assist! We offer both individual consultations and group training on these topics and we’d love to work with you.

FREE: Rock Your Work From Anywhere Guide

Get tips and strategies to rock your work from anywhere productivity while maintaining boundaries when work and life happen under one roof.

Your information will never be shared.